Cairn Homes chiefs to share €48m in stock conversion

Cairn Homes chiefs to share €48m in stock conversion

The founders of listed housebuilder Cairn Homes have been awarded shares in the business worth just under €48m at current prices.

It is the second major payout under a package that was part of the firm’s 2015 stock market flotation.

The company said yesterday that 27.1m founder shares held by three directors will convert to ordinary shares on August 16, after the business met targets set out at the time of the flotation.

Early stage Cairn backer Alan McIntosh is the biggest beneficiary. He will get half of the new shares with the rest shared between brothers Michael Stanley, Cairn’s chief executive, and Kevin Stanley, its chief commercial officer. Last year the three founders converted just over €60m of founder shares into ordinary tradeable shares under the same scheme.

It means 80pc of the founders’ shares have now been exercised, three years into a seven-year window.

The conversion of founder shares to ordinary shares is subject to the value of the company increasing by 12.5pc a year. None of the new shares can be sold for at least a year, and half of the newly-issued stock must be held for two years.

The share awards will slightly dilute existing shareholders. Cairn shares were up by just under half a percent at €1.7380 a share.

The Iseq index of Irish shares was weaker yesterday, though it recovered some early losses to close at 6,935.73. CRH Plc contributed the most to the decline, falling 2.4pc at one stage and closing down 1.4pc. Movers also included Ryanair, down 1.9pc, and AIB Group, down 2pc.

Providence Resources reversed an early decline to close up 17pc on the day on hopes its off shore Irish oil prospects could come good, after the company said new 3D seismic data for its southern Porcupine Basin site showed the “exciting exploration potential” of the offshore block.

Elsewhere, European shares fell yesterday as earnings updates disappointed, with car-mnakers bearing the brunt of trade tensions that caused a sell-off in the Chinese yuan overnight.